A 50-year-old runner from Bucharest was killed Saturday evening during Romania’s Bucovina Ultra Rocks trail race when a sudden, violent storm swept through the area, toppling trees and forcing a large-scale rescue operation in the mountains of Suceava County.
The man, who has not yet been publicly identified, was participating in the 88K “4 Summits” event, one of the signature races of the weekend-long event held in the Carpathian Mountains. Around 9:47 p.m. local time, emergency services received a call that a runner had been struck by a falling tree roughly 63 kilometers into the race, in the Giumalău Massif.
Rescue crews, including military firefighters, rushed to the scene but were delayed by fallen trees blocking access roads. When they reached the man shortly after 11 p.m., he was unconscious. Paramedics administered CPR, but attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.
Race organizers halted all competition as the storm intensified and used GPS tracking and phone calls to locate runners and direct them to safety. Twenty-three runners had to be rescued and escorted to shelters or mountain cabins overnight. Several were treated for mild hypothermia, but no one else required hospitalization.
The storm had not been forecast. In an official statement, organizers described it as “extremely violent” and said it occurred “without any weather warning.”
“Weather conditions were continuously monitored,” the statement continued. “At decision points, the available meteorological products did not indicate a severe, localized escalation in the Giumalău area. The phenomenon developed suddenly and locally.”
The 15K race scheduled for Sunday was canceled, and parts of the region remain under a state of emergency. The same storm system caused widespread damage across eastern Romania, with floods killing three elderly people, damaging buildings, and sweeping away cars. More than 100 people have been rescued by land and air in Suceava County, with operations still ongoing.
The Bucovina Ultra Rocks race, part of the 2025 Europe Trail Cup circuit, features eight distances ranging from 5K to 100 miles. It draws trail runners from across Europe to the rugged ridgelines and dense pine forests of northern Romania. But as this weekend’s tragedy shows, the beauty of high-altitude races can come with real risk, especially in rapidly changing mountain weather.
In 2021, a similar tragedy unfolded in China when 21 runners died at the Huanghe Shilin Mountain Marathon after getting caught in a storm with freezing rain and high winds. That disaster prompted widespread scrutiny of race protocols and highlighted the challenges of emergency response in remote terrain.
While fatal incidents during trail races remain rare, they serve as stark reminders of how quickly the elements can turn. Organizers in Romania say runners were located through the live‑tracking system and contacted by phone using data provided at registration, then “directed to assistance points, shelters, and safe areas.”
